


Given Up Faith

by Smalls2233



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hate Sex, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:07:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22837537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smalls2233/pseuds/Smalls2233
Summary: He’ll let all the hunters come to their suspicions, he’ll let them investigate him and get frustrated when they see that there’s no possibility that he could be the one raising hell in Beacon Hills.Peter pulls himself back into his room and rakes his claws down his palms. He’s going to slaughter every single person that wronged his pack and then he’ll make a new one. It’ll be a pack that every hunter will live in fear of.Peter is done running from hunters. They burned his pack and now they’ll learn what a mistake that was.——When they were young, Peter and Chris had been together in their own way and then the Hale house burned down with the pack inside of it. Afterwards, Peter spent six years trapped inside his mind, placing blame on the only one he could imagine — Chris Argent. Peter wants him to suffer just as he had, but as everything starts falling apart for Chris, Peter can't help but wonder if that's really what he deserves.
Relationships: Chris Argent/Peter Hale
Comments: 12
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

It all started when they were young. Their hair was free of gray and their eyes still had those faint sparkles of hope that were so easily stripped away by the harsh realities of the world.

Neither of them really had any false expectations for their relationship. Chris was married and his daughter had just turned three and Peter didn’t really consider himself fit for any sort of committed relationship. Relationships took things like  _ empathy _ and  _ caring about people not named Peter Hale _ . Yeah, Peter was more made for things like one night stands and sleeping with a married man whose job was killing people like you.

So every couple of weeks, Chris would show up at Peter’s apartment and they’d fuck. That was really the only word for it; they weren’t making love, they barely even liked each other. But it was an easy setup. They didn’t have to talk, they didn’t have to be nice to each other, they just fucked and then proceeded to ignore each other when they saw each other at the grocery store.

Peter didn’t know if Victoria knew or not, and honestly he didn’t care. Hunters didn’t really get married for love and he wouldn’t have been surprised if she had someone she was seeing on the side either. But the idea of being the wedge that pushed apart a hunter’s marriage was amusing enough to Peter that he let himself pretend that if she found out everything in Chris’s life would fall apart.

He also didn’t really know what Chris thought of all of it. Peter found sleeping with a married hunter to be an amusing distraction but it was likely not the same for Chris. The Argents thought that werewolves were nothing but ticking time bombs, rabid dogs waiting to snap. It made Peter curious as to whether Chris was just waiting for Peter to snap, either for a shot to kill him or a shot to be killed. Or maybe he just hated himself enough that he was willing to fuck a werewolf.

Peter didn’t find himself particularly wanting to ask those questions. He liked that the majority of words exchanged between him and Chris were mostly Chris telling him to take it like a good slut while he pounded into him or Peter taunting Chris, asking him what his daddy thought of him sleeping with a wolf or how proud his daughter would be of him cheating on her mommy.

Whatever their relationship was, whatever either of them thought about it, Peter enjoyed it. He liked letting himself be manhandled by Chris and leaving bruises that Chris would struggle to explain away. He was usually the dominating partner but letting Chris growl nasty things in his ear as he fucked him roughly with hardly enough preparation was just too much fun to try and go for any other dynamic.

And then when the entire family was at the pack house, celebrating Cora passing a test she had been studying hard for, the house went up in flames and Peter immediately knew how fucking stupid he had been.

Chris hadn’t been sleeping with him out of any self loathing or idle curiosity. He hadn’t been doing anything but biding his time, waiting for Peter to slip and mention any little tiny bit of information as to when all of the Hales would get together. As Peter burned in the basement, unable to escape for the ring of mountain ash, his mind was locked on Christopher fucking Argent.

For six years Peter’s mind broke down from the sheer amount of agony he was in every single second. His body was breaking down and reforming constantly, unable to fully heal without the power of an alpha and his alpha had abandoned him alongside Derek. They went to New York and abandoned him, left him defenseless and broken, just waiting for Chris to slaughter him too.

Peter’s broken mind formulated countless plans of revenge. He was going to burn Chris’s family alive and force him to watch, maybe he’d break his kneecaps first and watch as Chris struggled to try and save them. Or maybe he would force Chris to watch as he slowly tore his family to shreds, seeing just how much flesh and blood a human could lose before they died. He was going to become an alpha again, that much was something he decided early on, and he was maybe he would bite Chris and force him to stay alive through the first shift.

That would be something beautiful, to watch as the man fully broke down and became his beta. Peter could force his control over him and make the man slaughter his family himself. It wouldn’t ever be the same as the sheer pain Peter felt, maybe his heart had been a few sizes too small and he was missing some crucial wiring in his brain that let him form healthy bonds with others, but he loved his family. They were everything to him and they had been taken in the cruelest way possible.

The thoughts of revenge were what got Peter through those six years. And now as he stands above the corpse of his niece with the power of an alpha coursing through his veins, he knows he can finally find everyone who helped to burn his family and slaughter them slowly. 

Some part of him is horrified by the remains of Laura, the fact that  _ her _ blood is drying on his hands makes him shudder. But it’s a necessity, his broken mind justifies. Besides, she abandoned him when he was most vulnerable. She didn’t even bother to take him with her when she left for the other side of the country.

Peter is in his full alpha shift as he moves her body, he hides the lower half several hundred meters from the upper half. He wants to do more but he’s still weak from spending six long years in a coma and it’s starting to get light out. So he cleans his hands in a stream and lopes back to the hospital.

He doesn’t know where Chris is right now but he’s certain the body will bring him crawling back. Peter grins as all of the different forms of revenge he could take flit through his mind. But that will come later, for now he has to pretend that he’s still a vulnerable, comatose vegetable. He’ll let all the hunters come to their suspicions, he’ll let them investigate him and get frustrated when they see that there’s no possibility that he could be the one raising hell in Beacon Hills.

Peter pulls himself back into his room and rakes his claws down his palms. He’s going to slaughter every single person that wronged his pack and then he’ll make a new one. It’ll be a pack that every hunter will live in fear of. 

Peter is done running from hunters. They burned his pack and now they’ll learn what a mistake that was.

——

Chris hadn’t planned on returning to Beacon Hills. When the Hale’s home had burnt down, he couldn’t stomach looking at that damn town anymore. But then one of his contacts in the police sent him a heads up on a suspicious death ruled a mountain lion attack. They still hadn’t found the other half of the body yet. Mountain lions didn’t bisect young women, especially not alphas.

So now he’s standing on the front lawn of a house he bought on short notice, frowning as he looks at all of the places he’ll need to set security cameras up on. Victoria and Allison are still in Washington, they’ll be coming down next week and that gives him time to get set up.

Chris sighs and heads into his SUV, he wants to check out the long term care ward at the hospital. He knows that Peter’s there. He had never visited, didn’t think it was appropriate for Peter’s — what word summarized what they were? Fuck buddies and friends with benefits all required some level of friendship — occasional hook up to be visiting him in the hospital. But a Hale was lured into what used to be Hale territory and was murdered. Last he heard, Peter was a comatose vegetable, but he still wants to make sure.

He really doesn’t want to have to kill him.

Chris is about halfway to the hospital when his phone rings. It’s Kate and he has half a mind to just send her to voicemail, she’s a good hunter and he trusts her but she’s also extreme. She takes action before she finishes an investigation and he wants to nail down every single loose end before he starts wasting bullets. 

Seconds before it would ring into voicemail, Chris answers. “What’s up, Kate?” He asks, already wishing he hadn’t answered. 

“Are you all moved into the new place yet?” Kate replies and Chris holds back his groan as he pictures where the conversation is going. “I can be over as soon as tomorrow to help with the hunt.”

“Victoria’s bringing Allison up next week. You can come the week after,” Chris tries for cordial but he’s not sure just how successful he is at that. Kate knows that he doesn’t agree with her methods, even if she is a damn good hunter. “I want to get my own investigation done first.”

The eye roll is obvious through Kate’s tone. “Chris, a werewolf did the attack, just clean up whatever Hales are left in Beacon Hills and then use the remains to draw in whatever other werewolves are hanging around. It’s easy.”

“I’ll take your suggestion into consideration,” Chris says dryly. “Allison will be happy to see you.”

“Have you told her about the family business yet?”

“I’ll tell her when she’s old enough, I’m not doing to her what dad did to us.” Chris’s childhood wasn’t something anyone could call normal or happy. Kate protested by not having any kids of her own and Chris isn’t planning to tell Allison anything about the supernatural until she is in college. The Argents may have been a family of hunters but he was going to let Allison make her own choices in life.

“Chris, she’s almost seventeen and you’re back in Beacon Hills. What are you gonna tell her when you come back bruised and bloodied from a hunt?”

“Thank you for your input, Kate, but she’s my daughter and it’s my decision on how I’m raising her.” Chris slows as he makes the left into the hospital parking lot. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Allison anything about the supernatural while you’re here. Just let her fucking finish high school before she has to worry about the fate of the world.”

“Sir yes sir,” Kate says, sarcasm dripping from her words. “I’ll let you go back to filing your taxes or whatever else responsible old man shit gets your rocks off.”

Before Chris can scold her, Kate hangs up the call. He makes an annoyed noise while he pulls into a spot. He knows his sister and there’s no way in hell she’s going to let her visit go by without leaving Allison some sort of breadcrumb trail. 

But one crisis at a time, Chris tells himself as he walks into the hospital. He can worry about keeping Allison out of everything in two weeks, for now he wants to make sure Peter’s still catatonic. It’ll make things harder in a sense if Peter  _ is  _ catatonic since he’s the only wolf still in Beacon Hills that Chris is aware of. But Chris doesn’t exactly relish the thought of killing his ex whatever they were so even if he has to figure out who in town’s a wolf, it’ll be easier for him.

Melissa McCall is at the front desk, they had never been particularly close, Victoria knows her better, but they were on friendly terms the last time he was in town. So he figures that she’s probably his best bet in terms of getting to Peter despite being neither family nor friends with him. 

“Chris!” Melissa notices him as he approaches and stands up. “When did you get back in town?”

Chris flashes his teeth in a smile and extends his hand. “I just got moved in the other day, Victoria and Allison should be coming down next week.”

“Do you need to get them set up here?” Melissa shakes his hand briefly and then moves back to her computer. “Or are you here for yourself?”

“Oh no, nothing serious. I just wanted to see if I could maybe visit Peter Hale?” He hopes that Melissa doesn’t know that he and Peter weren’t exactly close. “We were friends back before… you know, I was hoping that I could see him.”

Melissa purses her lips and steeples her fingers. “Technically visitors should just be family but I don’t think Derek or Laura have ever come down to visit him. Poor guy,” she breaks off with a sigh before she continues. “I’ll let Jennifer know, you can’t stay for long but you can pop in for like ten minutes. He’s room 310 in the long term care ward.”

“Thanks, Melissa.”

“It’s no problem, everyone deserves to have someone visiting them.” Melissa pauses for a moment as she typed out a message, presumably to Jennifer. “Tell Victoria that when she’s back in town, I’d love to catch up over coffee or wine.”

Chris laughs, “I’m sure she’d love to. I’ll see you around.” He waves as he walks off, following the signs to the long term care ward.

He’s not even a werewolf and it still smells uncomfortable here, it’s the same sterile smell as the rest of the hospital but somehow worse. It’s probably how under the cleaning chemicals, everything smells stale. Sure the nurses give sponge baths to the patients, but it’s a ward filled with people who can’t care for themselves. He can almost feel the despair in the air like it’s something solid. He can’t imagine being stuck here for six years, he’s pretty sure that six hours would drive him nuts.

Chris slows down as he approaches Peter’s room. He almost wants to turn around, leave the box unopened so he doesn’t have to know if Peter really is the one who murdered Laura Hale. But practicality wins out, he needs to figure this out so he can get on with the hunt. Apprehension boils in his stomach but he still walks through the open door.

Peter’s staring blankly at the window facing the forest and Chris swallows hard as he sees him. Fifty million emotions flicker through his mind in a millisecond and he doesn’t know which one he should settle on.

“Peter, it’s Chris,” Chris says as he walks around to face Peter. He decides that the emotion that he’ll settle on is sadness when he sees Peter’s eyes. There’s no trace of the sharp wit and brutal sarcasm in them any longer. They’re just blank, staring directly forward. The scars from the burns are bad but the blankness in his expression is what makes Chris blink back tears for Peter that he didn’t know he had in him. 

Fuck, even if Peter had pissed him off more often than not back in the day, seeing him like this is upsetting. There’s no way in hell that Peter was the one who slaughtered Laura Hale. The feeling of relief that gives Chris is washed away by how awful the blankness in Peter’s face feels.

“Someone killed your niece,” Chris says in a quiet voice. “The police said it’s a mountain lion but we both know that it wasn’t. She was an alpha in her prime, no mountain lion could have killed her.”

Chris paused and looked away from Peter. His tongue feels heavy and he doesn’t know what to do. Peter’s a werewolf, he’s dangerous, and on top of all of that, he’s a killer. But if someone killed Laura, Peter’s gonna be at risk too. If a wolf wants the Hale’s old territory, they’ll want to clear all of them out.

Chris is a hunter, yes, and he doesn’t like giving werewolves a chance to go feral, but Peter’s vulnerable. He wants to protect him, despite everything.

“I’m going to look for her killer,” Chris finally continues. “You were always a challenging bastard, Peter, but you’ve never deserved all of this.” It shocks him that it’s how he actually feels. For ages, he’s felt conflicted about the fire. It was some rogue hunter not following the code, which he hadn’t agreed with, but fewer werewolves in the area meant less risk for the humans.

But it’s impossible to think that Peter’s a danger as he sits in his chair, looking so helpless and vulnerable. For the first time, Chris thinks about how the Hales had been a family, they had loved each other like he loved Allison. They might not have been human, but they were still people. Peter lost everything and now he’s lost his niece too.

“I’m so sorry,” Chris said in a choked whisper. He places his hand on Peter’s shoulder and squeezes it gently, not knowing what else to say. To his surprise, he feels Peter quaking under his touch. His face is still blank but the muscles of his arms down to his hands are shaking. A low growl rumbles in Peter’s chest and Chris releases his shoulder.

He doesn’t know if it was his presence or the news of Laura’s death that managed to pull this reaction from Peter. He wants to assume that it’s the news about Laura, just a visceral bodily reaction from a man whose mind can hardly reach his body. The lack of any expression on his face means that it’s not any conscious movement on Peter’s part, Chris can hardly imagine the emotions going through Peter’s mind that are strong enough to pull that reaction from them.

Chris closes his eyes for a brief moment and then starts walking out of the room. He’s gotten his answer and now he has work to do. If Peter hadn’t been the one to kill Laura, there’s a new werewolf to find and hunt down. He finds it hard to find pity in his heart for someone who killed a young woman. Even if Laura Hale had been a werewolf, she hadn’t deserved to be killed in the way she was, slaughtered by someone so thirsty for power they’d kill for it.

Chris’s expression is set in a deep frown as he heads to his car. He has a week until Victoria and Allison are here and then another week until Kate comes, he has preparation to do before then. He packs away any feelings of guilt or sadness over the deaths of the Hale family that had risen up, unbidden when he had seen Peter. There’s no room for regret when preparing for hunts.


	2. Chapter 2

_ Peter growled low in his throat as Chris pinned him against the wall. If Peter wasn’t certain that he’d have killed himself before the wolf could take, he would have thought Chris was a werewolf with the way he bared his teeth. To anyone else it would have been a smile, but he knew him better than that. _

_ The flash of impossibly straight, white teeth was a challenge. He wanted Peter to bare his neck but the only things Peter bared for him were sharp, inhuman fangs.  _

_ This was how things went with them. Even if it always ended the same way — with Peter  _ letting _ Chris dominate him — they’d fight and bite and claw at each other. It was their own type of foreplay in its own way. Sure, they’d jerk and suck each other off, but Peter liked the reminder that Chris could kill him just as easily as he could kill Chris. _

_ The way Chris grabbed his throat, tight enough to cut off air to his lungs made his cock throb. He could see Chris’s cock tenting his pants when he grabbed Chris’s wrist and squeezed damn near hard enough to break the bones. _

_ Chris had just gotten off a hunt, Peter could still smell the sweat, blood, and earth on him. His body was littered in bruises that made Peter’s wolf snarl. The only bruises he wanted Chris covered in were from him. But it served its own purpose; they could be rougher than normal, he could leave more marks on Chris that could be explained away as wounds from the hunt. _

_ It absolutely wasn’t normal to get off on this. But he was a werewolf who tied up loose ends for a living and Chris was a hunter. Normal wasn’t in the cards for them, so they played their own games, made their own foreplay. _

_ And Peter? Well, Peter loved it. _

_ —— _

It takes every ounce of self restraint from Peter not to rip out Chris Argent’s throat the second he hears his footsteps in the long term care ward. He has to fight to keep his face in the same blank expression he’s worn for the past six years as Chris talks like he isn’t the one who murdered his family.

He can’t stop the way his body trembles when Chris touches him, the pure rush of rage is impossibly strong. It’s fury and effort that causes the shaking; he’s fighting back the shift. He can’t let his eyes flash red, can’t let Chris know what he’s become.

When Chris leaves he finally lets his fangs and claws out, he feels physical pain from having held them back for so long. But when the anger and pain fades, satisfaction rises in their place. The Argents have always been the ringleaders of hunters wherever they’ve decided to hole up and now Chris seems convinced that he’s not a threat. He’ll have time to tear out the throats of every human who had a hand in the fire while the hunters run around in circles. When he’s finished with that, then he’ll move onto the Argents.

Peter closes his eyes and runs a hand along the flame puckered skin of his face. It’s painful in a way that he’s unsure about whether it’s from actual physical pain or just the memory of being burned alive. He still remembers feeling his flesh bubbling, smelling his family choking on smoke and burning until they were nothing but charred flesh and ash. He can hardly remember what Talia sounded like apart from her dying screams now, but the smell of her skin burning is still fresh in his nose.

He digs his claws into the scars on his face and feels blood drip down his skin. This is his penance for living, for letting a hunter use him to burn his family. But when he finally gets his revenge on Chris, he’ll finally let the ruined flesh heal. Maybe as Chris chokes on his own blood, takes his last dying breath, he’ll let the scars fully heal. As Chris dies, Peter will let himself finally be fully reborn.

——

Chris is in the grocery store, debating whether to buy bone in or boneless chicken thighs, when he comes across Sheriff Stilinski and his kid, Style or some other weird nickname like that. 

“I heard you were back in town, Argent. How’s it going?” Stilinski asks and extends his hand. 

Chris shakes it firmly with a nod and a smile that shows white teeth. “Apparently your department is in desperate need of good guns,” he laughs. 

Stilinski laughs with him, “Can’t say I’m too opposed to having some of yours again. Are Victoria and Allison down yet?”

“They’ll be getting down here on Sunday, Allison starts school on Monday.” Chris pauses for a moment and then adds, “She’s a sophomore.”

“Maybe you can do her a favor and show her around school, Stiles,” Stilinski says and clasps his son on the shoulder.

“I’m pretty sure that would be the opposite of a favor,” Stiles says dryly in response. “Social homicide is a better description and I think there’s been enough murder in town for the time being.”

Chris raises his eyebrows. “I thought it was a mountain lion attack.”

“Yes, because mountain lions are known to bisect people and then proceed to not eat them, instead hiding the halves of the body hundreds of meters away from each other.” Stiles rolls his eyes and goes to the meat case. Chris has to hold back his own snort at the kid’s words. 

“Thank you for your input, Stiles,” Stilinski says dryly. “We’re going to have a few words about listening in on the police scanner and getting in the way of investigations on the way home.”

Chris chuckles under his breath. “Pretty sure most people use those things to avoid the cops.”

“God forbid my son do something a normal teenager does instead of trying to find bodies,” Stilinski laughs with him but he quickly sobers up. “I have to ask though, you have hunting and trapping experience, right?”

“Of a sort,” Chris replies cagily. “What’s up?”

Stilinski scratches at the stubble on his jaw and frowns at him. “Stiles said that he heard a wolf in the Preserve. He has a buddy that doesn’t live too far away from there who mentioned hearing the same thing and said he might have seen a wolf. Pretty sure there haven’t been wolves in this part of the state in ages and it could have just been some feral dog, but do you mind keeping an eye out for it? We have some people setting traps out so we can relocate it to a sanctuary but it doesn’t hurt to have more people watching out.”

Chris flashes him a smile and tosses a pack of boneless chicken thighs in his cart. “Of course, a friend already mentioned hearing about the wolf to me.” He turns to Stiles and inspects the kid, he doesn’t seem like a wolf, twitchy and awkward in all the wrong ways, but he wants to make sure. “Did you see it at all or did it bite at you? Even dog bites can be pretty dangerous,” he pauses and fixes Stiles with a slightly more dangerous smile than the one he gave to Stilinski. “Wolf bites can carry all sorts of diseases, they’re no joke.”

An expression flashes across Stiles’ face for a brief moment, the type that makes Chris pause and take interest. It’s a mix of shock, concern, and, interestingly enough, guilt. “Nope, I just heard it. Thanks for the concern though, Mr. Argent.”

“Good,” Chris clasps a hand on his shoulder and shakes it lightly. He’s going to be keeping an eye on the Stilinski kid. Even though he’s certain the kid wasn’t bitten, Stiles knows more than he’s letting on. “I’ll keep an eye out for the wolf and see if I can’t do anything about that mountain lion for you, Sheriff.”

“I appreciate it.” Stilinski nods and lets Stiles toss some chicken breasts and ground turkey into his cart. “It’s good to see you back in town again, Argent. Let me know when you’re free and I’ll see if I can’t get some guys from the station over at my place and we can all have a beer and play some poker.”

“That sounds like a plan that I’d have a hard time turning down.” Not only does he like Stilinski but getting together with him and some of the deputies would let him gather some more information. That and he could use that get together to press Stiles some more, he’s interested in what the kid knows. “Sheriff, Stiles, I’ll be seeing you around.”

“Later,” Stiles says. His tone is cautious and reserved, he must be seeing Chris as a threat. He seems like a smart kid, the only issue is that Chris isn’t his enemy. If Stiles knows anything about werewolves, if the kid has seen the alpha or a beta, he’s playing with fire.

Chris’s job is protecting humans from monsters. Even if the humans think they don’t need protection — especially if they think they don’t need protection. 

——

Only being able to work in the secrecy of the night is frustrating. Even if the night provides cover and protection, Peter wants to walk in the sunlight again. He supposes that in a month or two, he’ll be able to do just that, but the waiting is miserable.

He’s sitting at the edge of the preserve, listening for hunters. He can feel the tug of his beta that he had bitten the night the police found Laura’s body. He doesn’t remember much about the boy, just that he’s young and smelled of albuterol and terror. The bite will have fixed whatever breathing problems he had, but Peter knows that he will have to to tear the terror free of him.

The boy needs to understand that there’s no need for fear, not anymore now that he has Peter protecting him. 

Peter opens his muzzle and tastes the air. He doesn’t hear or smell any hunters but he knows they’re around like cockroaches. Chris’s visit is proof enough of that fact. The preserve is his territory and soon he will have to watch where he steps in fear of landing in a bear trap.

His beta will need to learn that too. He’s soft and Peter is certain he doesn’t know anything of the dangers werewolves face from hunters. Peter will protect the boy from everything that he can, but until it’s finally safe for him to walk free and unscarred, he can only protect him in the night. But if a hunter so much as touches his beta, he will rip their throat out.

With a long claw, Peter carves a promise of revenge into the trunk of a tree and starts his patrol. The patrol serves a few purposes, the main one is he wants to get a sense as to who the hunters in the area are now. He knows that the Argents had left after the fire but he doesn’t know who all had filled the gaps they left. Scenting hunters can also help him with his other purpose, he knows the names of a few of the men involved with lighting his family’s house ablaze — when he had first awoken he clawed at Jennifer’s neck and forced her to follow his orders, one of the first things he told her to do was to dig into the fire, find the names of the involved — but he also knows that there were more. Chris was a hunter absolutely involved, but there are more scents that he remembers that he can’t place to anyone.

He hopes that whatever hunter he comes across will match the scents in his memories. He’ll slaughter them with none of the mercy he had shown Laura. He has plans for the non-hunters, the ones that just took some money to burn an entire family alive, they’ll be spectacles to rile up the Argents and their ilk. But any hunters, people who were supposed to follow a code, he’ll tear them into so many pieces that their bodies will never be identified.

Peter pricks his ears as he gets to a thinning in the trees. The road is close here and he hears the rumble of an engine in the distance. He sits on his haunches and watches the road, curious. The car that goes barreling down the road is an old Jeep, not one that he recognizes as belonging to any hunter. He follows it out of interest, there could be a younger hunter he’s not familiar with or maybe another one had taken a large downgrade in automobiles in the six years he had been comatose.

The Jeep pulls off the road and a teenager with a bad haircut and ill fitting clothes hops out. He’s not anyone that Peter recognizes as a hunter but there are very few reasons why anyone would be going to the preserve after nightfall when a girl was just found murdered there. 

Any questions he has about the identity of the teen are answered quickly when the passenger leaves the Jeep. It’s his beta.

Peter lets the boys walk into the woods and trails behind them. He’s a little unimpressed by how his beta doesn’t even notice him. But he was only bitten a few nights ago, all of the scents and sounds in the forest are probably overwhelming to him right now.

“I’m pretty sure Jackson is gonna try and kill me dude. Did you see the way he was looking at me today?”

“Scott, you crumpled the bike rack when you were just trying to put up your bike today. I’m pretty sure you could take Jackson in a fight.” So that’s what his beta’s name is, Scott.

Scott shakes his head. “Okay even if I did that, I’m pretty sure that just makes this worse. Imagine if I’m trying to grab his arm to get him to stop pummeling me and then I just crush the bones in his arm. His dad’s a lawyer, Stiles, I’m pretty sure I’d get sued into oblivion.”

“So we work on getting you to control your strength, easy.” He appreciates the kid’s enthusiasm but unfortunately new betas aren’t that easy to control. Everything is so overwhelming for them and the wolf and the human have to learn to coexist and work together. It’s a process that takes time. 

“Controlling the claws is also priority one, my dad was talking to a guy I don’t really recognize at the store today. I guess he just moved back to town but I don’t trust him.” Stiles is talking about Chris, there’s no doubt in Peter’s mind. He stifles the growl that’s threatening to bubble up from his chest and he digs his claws deep into the dirt. “Dad asked him about trapping the wolf we heard and he asked me without asking me if it bit me.”

“I mean if there’s a random wolf in the woods and I was someone who trapped and relocated wild animals, I’d be pretty worried about if someone got bitten by it. Like what if it had rabies?”

“Scotthew, genuinely, I love you but I can also promise that he wasn’t asking about rabies.” Stiles pauses and runs his hands down his head. “He had this look on his face, I think he knows something about werewolves and shit.”

“Okay, I get that, but it also might be worth reaching out to the dude. So maybe he  _ was _ hinting about werewolves, maybe he’s one himself. I’m kinda mentorless here and your Google-fu can only get us so far.”

“Option two: he’s Van Helsing and has a collection of silver bullets, rosaries, stakes, and garlic bulbs all ready to kill teenagers like you with.”

Scott lets out an annoyed noise. “So what, we just sit and wait to see who makes the first move? Or maybe I’ll wolf out in class before the first move is made.” The growl he makes is quiet enough that Peter can hardly hear it. “I know you think this werewolf stuff is the coolest shit ever, Stiles, but every time Harris chooses you or me to pick on in Chemistry or Jackson and his goons shove us into a locker, I get so,  _ so  _ close to snapping. I don’t know what I’ll do if I actually hurt someone.”

“Hey, Scott,” Stiles’ voice goes quiet and he puts a hand on Scott’s shoulder. “I’m not trying to make this out to be some cool thing I’m tagging onto. You and I can work on your control together but I’m also trying to make sure  _ you  _ don’t get hurt.” His voice gets quieter as he talks and then he pauses for a moment. Peter creeps up closer to the boys so he can hear Stiles better. “The man today at the grocery store, I really don’t know how to describe it, but he was terrifying. Dad seemed cool with him but I just have the gut feeling that if he knew what you were, it wouldn’t end up well for you.”

Scott slides down the trunk of a tree until he’s sitting down. Peter can see that his claws are out and his eyes are glowing. “I trust you but dude, we need to figure out something soon.”

Stiles says something but Peter doesn’t pay attention. He’s heard enough and it has the gears in his brain turning. He knows that Scott needs a mentor but he’s not in the best position to teach anyone the finer parts of control at the moment. He’s restricted to his alpha shift and can only go out after the sun has set.

But he can start pushing his influence onto Scott. If he can encourage the boy to join as he works on his revenge then he can push his influence so he can help him quell the anger and rage that bubbles up. It would be easier if he could get Scott into his hospital room and explain things to him, but that’s not an option.

Peter abandons the rest of his patrol and heads back to the hospital. He might not have found any hunters tonight but the universe seems to think that getting control and influence over his beta was more important. He couldn’t exactly disagree, especially not when it came with added information on what Chris has been doing.

Peter climbs up the old brick of the hospital walls towards the cracked open window of his room. Jennifer has been kind enough to make sure the security cameras in the area have been decommissioned and she watches over his room while he makes his excursions.

He opens the window and slides into the room. The shift back into human skin is painful, his shifted skin is unmarred by fire which makes the presence of bubbled scars so much more obvious to him. But it’s the perfect disguise, a mask no one would ever think to take off.

A clear plan is starting to form in Peter’s mind. All of the pieces are almost perfectly in place, he just needs to wait for a few more to line up and then he’ll finally strike. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly chris putting on the intimidation were probably some of the hottest parts of s1 and s2 and I'm enjoying the fact that I'm going to be able to put in copious amounts of that in the first part of this fic lmfao


	3. Chapter 3

_ Peter had been sloppy. He knew that as soon as he heard the first crackle of a radio sound off in the distance.  _

_ He spat out an oath under his breath and abandoned the body he had been ripping up under a tree. This wasn’t even pack business he was handling — he was taking care of a loose end for one of his clients, entirely unrelated to the supernatural — he didn’t know how the hunters had caught onto him. The only thing he could think of was maybe one of Gerard’s men had been keeping feelers on him, waiting for him to slip up. _

_ That had to be it; he hadn’t taken care of a loose end for a client in this way for over a year. Any murders in that timespan had all been supernatural on supernatural. No humans had been killed until now.  _ Fuck _ , he had gotten complacent with the hunters.  _

_ Peter let himself shift fully into his beta shift as he walked away from the body. He needed the heightened senses if he was going to have any hope of getting out. Everything about the situation was grimly humorous to him in a way. Sure, he was a werewolf using his natural abilities to murder a human, but this was a job that any human could have picked up and done. He knew twenty other fixers, all of them humans, and no hunter would go after them in a lynch mob. _

_ He got about half a mile away from the body when he realized that he hadn’t taken a picture of it. God dammit, he needed that if he wanted to get paid. What was the purpose of dealing with hunters wanting to murder him for killing criminals who saw too much if he wasn’t going to get six figures for it. _

_ It wasn’t even a debate, Peter immediately turned around despite the way he could hear the footsteps of hunters in the distance. He didn’t  _ need _ the money, he had plenty, but he already went through the trouble of killing the bastard. His footsteps were near silent as he flitted through the woods. It sounded like there were at least ten hunters swarming the woods like flies and Peter held back a frustrated snarl. _

_ But he got to the body without seeing a single hunter, thank god. He snapped a few quick pictures and pocketed the camera again. There, now he had everything he needed for the paycheck. _

_ He headed in a different direction than he had gone the last time and he knew it was a mistake before he even got thirty meters away. He could hear a hunter nearby and shit, there was no way the hunter didn’t hear him, not if he was worth any hunter damn.  _

_ The hunter turned around and Peter’s hopes fell even further. He was an Argent. Christopher Argent if he wasn’t mistaken, he had just moved into Beacon Hills to take over for his dad. There was a zero percent chance he wasn’t a fanatic lunatic who would take “If I was a human I still would have killed the guy,” as an answer. _

_ Peter met Chris’s gaze and for several tense moments the two men just stared at each other. He could see the way Chris’s hands hovered over his gun and Peter flexed his claws. _

_ But after what felt like hours — and in reality was maybe thirty seconds — Chris grabbed his radio and spoke quietly in it. “This area’s clear, comb the next for Hale.” _

_ “Don’t let me see you out here again,” Chris said in a low voice after he lowered the radio. The man still looked like he was an inch away from pulling out his gun and unloading the clip into Peter’s chest. “We’re running nightly sweeps.” _

_ Peter repaid the kindness by not ripping out his throat. Instead, he just nodded and let his features meld back into smooth humanity. It was against his base instincts to turn his back on a hunter, but he ignored them and did so anyway as he walked away into the darkness of the forest. _

_ Three months later, for the first time, Chris roughly fucked him in the bathroom of a biker bar. He smelled of sweat, gunpowder, and whiskey. Peter wouldn’t have that and he made Chris start to smell like him instead.  _

_ It really was the start of something beautiful. _

_ —— _

Chris rubs at the stubble on his jaw as he scrolls through the news on his laptop. Victoria and Allison should be getting here later in the afternoon, an entire week has passed and he’s not any closer to learning the identity of the alpha who murdered Laura Hale. Whoever they are, they’ve been quiet since that night, they haven’t stirred up any trouble that has hit the news. But it’s only a matter of time.

The main thing that he knows is there’s at least one beta in town. If he wants to find the alpha, he just needs to get to the beta. Beacon Hills isn’t a big town and a new, out of control beta will be easy to spot.

Chris takes a sip of his coffee and shuts his laptop. The beta’s connected to Stiles Stilinski in some way and he should be easy enough to find that way. Stiles doesn’t exactly strike him as the subtle sort nor does he seem like he has that many friends. He hates to think of using his daughter in this way, but he could probably figure out who his friends are by asking Allison the right questions after a few days of school.

He stands up and dumps the rest of his coffee down the sink. He needs to get to work for the day. It’s only half past seven in the morning and Victoria said that she and Allison should be getting to town closer to five but he doesn’t know how long his main task for the day will take.

The task is shaking down Derek Hale and seeing what he knows. The kid just got back in town the previous night and one of Chris’s contacts mentioned he was staying in the burnt out shell of his former home. For what reason he doesn’t just get an extended stay hotel room or even a fucking tent, Chris doesn’t know, but it makes him easy to track down at least.

He doubts Derek’s the alpha, he had worked on profiles of the different Hales before the fire and unless the fire fundamentally broke something in Derek, he’s not the alpha type. He’s too soft, too emotional, he can’t make the hard decisions and he wouldn’t murder his sister. But nothing changes a personality like having your entire family murdered so it’s safer to check.

Chris holsters his pistol and slips on his jacket. He doesn’t bother with wolfsbane bullets, he’s not looking for trouble with Derek. It’s a courtesy visit more than anything — he’ll leave Derek alone provided that Derek leaves the people of Beacon Hills alone. 

Honestly, Chris is half tempted to let Derek deal the killing blow to the alpha. He doesn’t like the idea of more alpha werewolves running around but the alpha murdered Derek’s sister and stole their family’s power.

But any thoughts like that were dependent on Derek being willing to agree to Chris’s terms. He doesn’t want Derek fucking with his investigation or doing anything that would put his family at risk. It’s a well known fact that the supernaturals in the area blame the Argents for the Hale fire and Chris isn’t about to let Derek enact any misdirected acts of revenge.

Chris grabs a baton on the way to his Tahoe. It’s a bit less overtly threatening than the desert eagle but if Derek does anything stupid, it’s easier to quickly pull out. Not that Chris expects him to do anything but being prepared is how he’s made it this far in life.

He passes the sheriff’s office as he drives and it’s busier than usual. He slows down and frowns, he hadn’t seen anything in the news that made him think something would be going on. It could just be a lingering response to Laura Hale but Chris makes a mental note to check it out later. Having Victoria in town will be a help, two pairs of eyes and ears can catch more than only his.

Chris mulls this over as he drives. A heightened police presence on top of the alpha being so quiet for so long is a combination that he doesn’t think is a coincidence. He needs to get closer to Sheriff Stilinski, that’s his main thought. If he can befriend the sheriff, he’ll be able to get even more updates than he can from just his contacts and his own investigations. 

It doesn’t hurt that getting close to the sheriff means he can find out more about Stiles and put more pressure on the kid. Humans almost always end up hurt when they deal with werewolves. Even when he was fucking around with Peter, he knew that Peter was only letting him push him down and dominate him. As thrilling as it was to be the one in control, the other part of the thrill came from knowing how easily Peter could have ripped out his throat. 

Stiles doesn’t know that danger, he doesn’t know how easily the beta friend he’s protecting could snap and slaughter him. The full moon’s on Friday and the likelihood that Stiles will end up with his body mutilated in an “animal” attack is higher than Chris likes.

Chris turns off the main road onto an overgrown, gravel road towards the burnt out shell of the Hale House. He’ll need to tell Derek to find the beta and teach him control. Beacon Hills doesn’t need the murder of a teenage boy on top of everything else. He’ll be busy tracking the alpha on the full moon so he won’t be able to put all of the necessary resources required towards keeping an eye on a kid who won’t accept that his friend is a danger now.

There’s movement in the house so Chris steps out of his car. “I’m just here to talk,” he says in a low voice. He knows it’s enough, Derek probably heard his heart beating before he was even in sight of the house.

Derek looks almost nothing like he had when Chris saw him last. It’s almost hard to believe they’re the same person. The frown on his face seems like it’s been carved there, like he hasn’t smiled in six years.

“I’m here for Laura and to find her killer,” Derek says. It’s not quite a snarl but it’s close. His arms are folded tightly against his chest and his brows are drawn close together. 

Chris leans against the hood of his Tahoe. “I’m looking for him too. If you stay out of the way, I’ll let you be the one to kill him.” He pauses and watches Derek’s face, looking for any guilty expression to flicker across it. “He made a beta, probably a teenage boy, probably friends with Stiles Stilinski. I want you to find the kid and let me know who he is.”

Derek’s face wrinkles in disgust. “I’m not about to turn over a beta to hunters.”

Chris narrows his eyes and frowns. “I’m not about to hurt a kid. We have a code, Derek, I’m making sure that I don’t have to put him down because he kills somebody on the full moon.”

Sardonically, Derek shakes his head and laughs. When he looks back to Chris, there’s no amusement in his expression. “People don’t follow the rules. Argent, you’re not a bad guy, but I’m not giving you any information that could lead to a kid getting slaughtered because he’s a werewolf.”

Derek pauses and unfolds his arms so he can put a hand on a charged pillar of wood and inspect it. “I don’t need you or any other hunters here. I’m going to find whoever murdered my sister and I’m going to kill them, then I’m going back to New York and never thinking about this fucking town again.”

“I’m going to find out who the beta is, the only difference between you finding him and telling me and me finding him myself is that in that time frame he has a high chance of hurting somebody.” Chris watches Derek and he feels a brief flicker of annoyance. He’s not the bad guy, he’s not going to murder a teenager. He has a responsibility to protect people and Derek is making it that much harder. “I’m not your enemy, Derek.”

“Hunters murdered my family,” Derek says flatly. The look he gives Chris is filled with accusation.

“My people didn’t murder your family. We don’t kill children, we don’t kill those who haven’t spilled the blood of others.”

Derek turns to retreat back into the burnt husk of the Hale House. “You can keep telling yourself that if it helps get you to sleep at night.”

——

It’s the middle of the week, Chris is no closer to finding the alpha, and Allison has a boyfriend. She’s been in town less than a week and she already is seeing some boy. Chris feels like he needs a beer or ten when Allison asks if she can go to a party on Friday night.

“I don’t know if I want you going out at night, not when they still haven’t captured the mountain lion that killed that girl.” The moon’s full on Friday, he doesn’t want Allison anywhere out of the house that night.

“There’s gonna be a ton of people there, if a mountain lion randomly decides to attack I’ll just throw the tastiest looking person in its direction and run.” Allison’s jaw is set in the same way that Victoria’s is when she’s made up her mind. “Besides, my boyfriend will pick me up.”

“ _ Boyfriend _ ?” Chris sputters. “Allison you’ve been here for three days, isn’t that a little soon to start dating a boy?”

Allison rolls her eyes in the way that only teenage girls have mastered. “Please don’t show him your gun collection, dad. He’s nice, his name is Scott and he’s on the lacrosse team.”

“And what else do you know about him? You’re not getting in the car with a boy you hardly know.”

“Are you serious? He’s not Ted Bundy, he’s just a cute dorky teenager. Do you want me to pull up his report card? Get you in contact with his mom? Ask the sheriff’s office to do a background check on him?” Allison folds her arms across her chest and scowls at him. “Mom knows his mom, Melissa McCall, so can you chill with the super protective dad crusade? I’m gonna be hanging out with him, Lydia, Lydia’s boyfriend, and Scott’s friend Stiles so you don’t have to worry about my virtue?”

“Stiles?” Chris has to put in effort to keep his face neutral and not look particularly interested. If this Scott kid is friends with Stiles that means he could be the beta. 

Chris absolutely does not want to risk Allison being around an out of control beta.

“Uh, yeah he’s the sheriff’s kid. He’s kinda weird but he’s nice enough. But do I have your blessing to go to the party, yes or no?”

The look on Allison’s face lets Chris know that no matter his answer, she’s going to go to that party. He could tell her the actual reason why he doesn’t want her going out but he doesn’t want to introduce her to the horrible world that he polices. He wants her safe and out of harm's way. 

Not in the arms of a potential werewolf on the full moon. 

“Be home by ten,” is what he says. He and Victoria are both going to be out on the full moon anyway, it’s irresponsible not to. So it’s better to at least set a time for Allison to be back than let her roam free, breaking all the rules.

Allison’s face brightens immediately and she presses a kiss to his cheek. “Thanks, dad! Please give Scott a chance, he’s really sweet. He helped me out when I hit the dog the other night, he works at the vet so he helped me set her leg and put her in a kennel so Doctor Deaton could take a look at her in the morning.”

Chris smiles, the expression vaguely pained and forced. “I’m sure I’ll like him.”

He’ll like him a hell of a lot more when he’s certain that Scott McCall isn’t the beta he’s looking for. The thought of Allison getting hurt by a werewolf has his stomach lurching. They’re too unpredictable, too dangerous and Allison is too vulnerable.

But at the very least, Chris has a new lead on the beta. Find the beta, neutralize whatever risk he can pose on the full moon, find the alpha.

When Allison turns away to head upstairs to her bedroom, Chris smiles grimly. He’s going to pay Scott McCall a visit. 

——

Dirt is cold under Peter’s feet as he walks barefoot across the preserve. He’s on the other side of the Preserve from his family’s former home, not wanting to be scented or seen by Derek. He had come by his hospital room a few days ago, not saying much but just sitting there. 

Peter wants Derek to understand why he had killed Laura. He hadn’t wanted to kill her, didn’t want to bring shrink the number of Hales left even further, but he had no other choice. But Derek won’t understand, not yet. He will eventually and so Peter hides his time, he’s alone save for the young beta he had bit.

Scott McCall… Peter doesn’t know what to make of him. For the past several nights, instead of working on his revenge, Peter has been following the boy. He works for Deaton, a fact of which Peter’s conflicted on. On one hand, Deaton is a dependable resource and had been invaluable for his family. On the other, Peter knows that the Druid won’t approve of his revenge. Deaton will try and keep Scott from him when he puts the pieces together, not out of malice or ill will towards Peter himself, but because he’ll think he’s putting the boy in too much risk.

Peter drags his claws down the trunk of a tree, feeling wood split underneath his claws like butter. What Deaton doesn’t know is how well he’s planning on treating Scott. He feels protective over him on a level he hadn’t known was possible. The bond between an alpha and their beta is so strong that the thought of doing anything to hurt him sends physical pain through Peter’s chest.

He’s going to make Scott strong, he’s going to make it so no one can ever hurt him. Peter has heard Scott complaining to his friend Stiles about some kid named Jackson and the trouble he tries to cause. He’s going to make it so Jackson will fear Scott. No beta of his should cower in fear of anyone, not hunters, not their peers who are so inferior that they shouldn’t even register on Scott’s radar.

The noise of a branch breaking in the distance immediately pulls Peter out of his thoughts. He retreats to the shadows and watches as a deer stumbles, it seems old and wounded with a lame leg. The deer breaks another branch and Peter stands still and watches for a few moments longer before he strikes.

He kills the deer quickly with a sharp bite to the back of its neck. It’s a mercy killing more than anything, he would have been surprised if the deer lasted another week. It would have fallen prey to a worse predator than Peter, at least he makes the kill fast.

Now that the body of the deer is growing cold, he can also use it as a warning. He takes a single claw and tears into the skin, leaving behind a spiral. His mouth waters at the scent of the blood, at the faint taste of it in his mouth. The meat is so fresh, it smells worlds better than the bland hospital food he’s been eating. But he forces himself to not tear into the deer.

Its purpose will be to let the hunters know he’s still here. He wants them nervous and afraid. The terror Chris Argent will feel is going to taste more delicious than any venison could ever taste.

Peter hefts the deer over a shoulder and starts walking across the preserve. He wants the deer visible, wants as many people as possible to see it. 

Soon it won’t be a deer that he carves a spiral into.

——

Chris watches as Allison climbs into Scott McCall’s car. She seems happy, he had heard her on the phone buzzing to her friend Lydia earlier. He wants to feel happy for her but the image of her ending up like Laura Hale plays on repeat in his head. He’s seen new werewolves on the full moon, they go rabid, absolutely feral. Strong alphas can control their betas but Chris doubts that the alpha will bother to do that.

That morning a mutilated deer was found in the preserve near the Hale House. The alpha wants everyone to know he’s here and an out of control beta is the perfect way to get his message across.

Scott seems fine as he drives off but the moon has barely begun its ascent into the sky. Chris turns away from the window and heads to his armory in the garage. Even if the beta isn’t Scott, there’s going to be a beta rampaging around Beacon Hills tonight and he needs to be out there watching.

Earlier that day, after news of the mutilated deer spread, Chris and a group of hunters spread traps and trackers throughout the preserve. He’ll be notified when werewolves are in the area and he can go to capture it.

He’s not planning on hurting the beta, nothing that won’t heal at least. What he’s going to do is lock it up, make sure it doesn’t do anything dangerous. There’s not a competent alpha in Beacon Hills to rein in its murderous, aggressive urges, so it falls to him. He knows his father and sister would disagree, they advocate for just slaughtering. But he and Victoria see things differently than them, underneath the aggressive predator there’s a teenage boy. They’re going to keep him safe as long as they can also keep the humans of Beacon Hills safe. 

Chris grabs his crossbow, a collection of bolts, two pistols, and an electric baton. He’s not taking any risks, it’s been over a year since he’s dealt with an out of control beta and he doesn’t want to be killed because he underestimated the wolf. Not only that but the alpha could be out.

He doesn’t know what the alpha is after but he knows enough about werewolves to know the spiral. There’s some personal vendetta here, he could be someone who had been close to the Hales. That’s what makes the most sense to Chris, but at the same time he still murdered Laura Hale to get the power.

None of this really makes sense to Chris so he lets himself clear any thoughts but the hunt from his mind. He’s not here to philosophize about the werewolves, he’s here to eliminate danger. On any other day, the alpha would be the more dangerous target but tonight with the moon fat in the sky, it’s the beta.

He gets into his Tahoe and heads to the Preserve to meet up with the other hunters in the area. There’s only two others, they didn’t actually live in Beacon Hills but a few towns over. The threat of a new beta and an unhinged alpha were enough to bring them to town. Werewolves are drawn to forests by the smell of prey and silence, cities and towns are too loud, smell too much of human pollution. There’s a chance that the beta will get confused and end up in town, but Chris is damn near certain that he’ll be in the preserve by moon high.

“If we see the beta, wound but don’t kill it,” Chris orders as he steps out of his car. “I want him captured alive.”

“And the alpha?”

“Pump it as full as wolfsbane as you can and drop it off at the Hale House. Derek Hale’s there, he can kill it and then he’ll leave town.”

One of the hunters, Dave, raises an eyebrow. “You’re seriously about to let a werewolf get that power?”

Chris frowns and shrugs. “The alpha murdered his sister, I think Derek’s welcome to the killing blow. Either way, the Hale pack never caused any problems.”

“Aside from Peter Hale,” the other hunter, Rick, says with a snort. “Gerard was furious that we never caught him in the act of killing someone.”

Chris thinks back to one of his first nights as an adult in Beacon Hills. He had been leading the hunt that night, Peter had been hired by a mobster to kill a witness and Gerard had gotten wind of it. Chris still doesn’t know what had gotten over him when he let Peter go that night.

Peter was a murderer, he killed humans, Chris knows that he should have finished him that night. Yet there had just been something about him that made him hesitate. He wonders if they hadn’t come across each other in the preserve that night if they would have started fucking around. 

Chris shakes his head to clear his mind. “Peter Hale is catatonic because someone didn’t follow the code and murdered a home filled with innocents — there were children in that house. Derek can get his family’s alpha spark back and then leave Beacon Hills, that’s my final decision.” Technically, it should be Victoria making the decisions, but nobody has ever had the gall to openly challenge an order from him.

“But the main threat tonight is the beta. We’re looking out for it first and foremost.” Chris loads a flash bolt into his crossbow and levels a look at the two hunters beside him. “Capturing him has a few benefits, the first is we won’t have to kill a teenager, the second is we stop him from murdering someone, and the most important is if we have the beta, we can find the alpha.”

Chris hears a furious howl in the distance and he knows it’s time. The hunt is on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> peter: I am the best possible alpha scott mccall could ever ask for  
> scott: but I literally didn't ask for this  
> peter: shh  
> that's pretty much how I imagine things going down lmfao


	4. Chapter 4

_ It was midnight and storming loudly when Peter heard the unsteady thumping of a heart on his doorstep. He could practically taste the pain in the air, even with a door and several meters separating him from its source. He narrowed his eyes and got up from his couch, curious to who would come to his apartment at this hour and so obviously in pain. _

_ Peter strode over to the door and opened it, revealing Chris Argent looking like he just got into a fight with a grizzly bear. His white t-shirt was stained red around a nasty wound on his chest. _

_ “I’m not sure if you know this or not, but I’m neither a medical professional nor particularly inclined to help you in any way, shape, or form.” Peter attempted to shut the door in Chris’s face, not wanting to deal with whatever the fuck kind of trouble Chris was trying to bring into his apartment but Chris shoved his shoulder into the door, blocking him from closing it. _

_ “Shut the fuck up and let me in.” _

_ “For a man so on the verge of death, you’re awfully demanding.” _

_ Chris met his eyes and glared. “You’re going to let me in and get out your jar of the nine herbs. The omega I was tracking had a warlock friend who summoned a greater imp.” Ah, yeah, greater imps would do it. Nasty fuckers whose claws were about as clean as the bottom of a sewer. “And before you try and bullshit and lie to me, saying you don’t have them, the jar is in your spice rack pretending to be for cooking.” _

_ “Have you been snooping through my apartment, Christopher?” Peter rolled his eyes and let Chris shove his way into the apartment. It wouldn’t do to have a hunter die on his doorstep, that’s the reasoning Peter gave himself for letting Chris inside. _

_ “Don’t you have a house of your own stocked with plenty of this shit and a wife who would be more than happy to tend to your wounds?” Peter didn’t want to play nurse with Chris, he hardly wanted to see him in any situation outside of bed. “I object to my apartment becoming the free hospital for hunters in need.” _

_ “Do you seriously ever shut up, Peter?” Chris snapped with a snarl that rivaled any born wolf’s. “Maybe consider the fact that I  _ —  _ shit, I don’t know  _ — _ have a five year old daughter at home? For some reason, I don’t think that she’d take too well to seeing daddy come home covered in blood and half dead from the poison of a greater imp.” He ripped the rest of his shirt off on the way to the kitchen and left the bloodied garment on the tile floor. The wound really was horrible, even with the blood covering Chris’s chest, Peter could see how the flesh that had been ripped open was tinged a sickly yellow. The smell was horrible too, Peter’s nose wrinkled at the sour scent of sickness and rot that radiated from Chris’s chest.  _

_ Peter rolled his eyes and grabbed his jar of nine herbs off of his counter. “And what happened to the other hunters you were with, are they dead?” He couldn’t stop the sneer from coating his words, a rat’s ass would have been too good for any hunters that Chris associated with. They all claimed that they only hunted the dangerous, but Peter had seen enough to know that wasn’t the case. _

_ Chris was the only hunter he came even vaguely close to trusting. _

_ “I was alone.” Chris paused and scowled as he grabbed the jar from Peter’s hands. “And I wasn’t planning on engaging him tonight anyway, I just wanted to do some recon.” _

_ A snarl left Peter’s throat completely unbidden. “Are you fucking  _ stupid _ , Christopher?” Claws dug into the skin of his palms and he felt blood cover his fingers. “What was your plan for if the omega attacked you, even if they didn’t have a warlock friend? You’re strong but you’re not even  _ close  _ to a werewolf.” _

_ “What do you care?” Chris snapped back at him. “You’d be happy if I had died; one less hunter to look out for.” _

_ Peter flashed his teeth as his snarl deepened. “You’re the only halfway decent hunter in California. I don’t like you, I don’t trust hunters, but if I had to pick any of them to die, you’d be the last on my list.” _

_ Christ barked out a nasty laugh as he slathered the nine herbs over the gaping wound in his chest. “I’m so happy that you’d kill me last, Peter.” _

_ “If you wanted someone to puff up your ego and tenderly nurse you back to health, you picked the wrong apartment.” The herbs covered up the rancid smell on Chris’s chest and the wound seemed to be looking better already. “I’m going to bed, I don’t want to see you here when I wake up.” _

_ Despite his words, Peter barely slept that night. He stayed up, listening at Chris’s pained breaths turned slow and even as he fell asleep. He didn’t stop listening, worried that the steady thump of Chris’s heart would suddenly be cut short. _

——

Derek Hale is out here, Chris knows that. He doesn’t know if Derek actually knows the beta or if he just wants to get a new wolf out of the woods before Chris finds him. It would be a sweet sentiment, but it’s a stupid one.

Even if the kid gets hurt in the hunt, he’ll heal up just fine. The rest of Beacon Hills won’t if he hurts someone, however, and neither would his mind. It’s likely that if the beta ends doing something that hurts or even kills someone, he’ll go feral and mad with his rational mind unable to process what happened. 

Chris holds his crossbow at the ready as he walks across the preserve, watching for any movement in the dark. His sight might not be as good as a wolf’s in the darkness, but it’s enough to see changes in the shadows. Anyway, a werewolf like the alpha or Derek would be smart enough to keep himself quiet and well hidden but a fresh beta isn’t going to have that sense.

He signals to his men to drop down a few sonar beacons. He doesn’t want them on quite yet, but he wants to create a perimeter that the wolf will want to steer clear of. Even if the kid tries to run, the beacons will be able to keep him trapped in the area. It’s not foolproof but it’s damn near to it. Having mountain ash would really be ideal but the druids in the area didn’t like selling it to hunters and Chris didn’t trust the other suppliers.

The snapping of a branch in the distance is loud and Chris immediately turns in the direction. He doesn’t see anything but he doesn’t doubt that his target is the one that snapped the branch. He gets moving and his men follow him.

He has a flashbang bolt loaded in his crossbow, ready to blind the beta. Blind him, bring him to his knees, put him in a cage till sunrise and then give him the rundown on what’s going to happen. There’s not a pack Chris can give the kid to so he’s going to have to be a wolf chained down by hunters. Honestly, a bullet between the eyes might be more kind than that, but until he does anything to hurt a human, Chris can’t let that happen.

Chris holds up a hand to get his men to slow down as he sees a shade of movement in the distance. He can’t see any details on the kid, it’s too dark for that, but he shoots his bolt past it. The flash of light illuminates the area and the beta’s roar of pain is loud. Chris quickly reloads his crossbow and shoots off another bolt, impaling the beta’s arm to the tree behind him.

“Take him,” Chris orders quietly to his men. He can’t clearly make out any details of the beta but it’s clear that he’s a teenage boy, meaning his hunch is correct. He’ll get the kid’s details in the morning, but for now what he’s concerned about is getting him locked up so nobody gets hurt.

Before any of that can happen, however, a dark blur sends his men falling over to the ground. Derek Hale, Chris realizes with a low snarl. He swings with his crossbow as Derek runs towards him but Derek dodges out of the way. He whips out his baton next and Derek meets his eyes. Derek’s eyes are glowing an unearthly, electric blue and he lets out a low growl as he charges.

The electric baton gets knocked out of Chris’s hands as Derek shoulder checks him, sending him tumbling to the ground and wheezing for breath.

“You have no clue what you’re doing,” Chris wheezes out as Derek rips the bolt free of the beta’s arm. “He’s the key to finding the alpha. And the alpha? He’s not going to stop until he makes that kid just as much of a killer as he is.” Chris winces as he sits up, his ribs are bruised, maybe one of them is broken. “That boy is going to kill somebody if you don’t give him to me.”

“He’s going to die if I give him to you,” Derek snarls back, voice distorted by fangs.

Before Chris can get up, Derek and the beta are gone. He swears under his breath, the only way this night could go worse is if the alpha shows his face.

——

The alpha never showed his face but it turns out that Chris was wrong when he thought that the night only could have gone worse if the alpha showed up. When he gets home, ribs aching, he sees that Allison is home early.

“I thought you were supposed to be out for a bit longer, honey,” Chris says when he sees her.

Allison frowns, upset. “Scott ditched me at the party, a friend of his drove me home.”

“Who’s the friend?”

“I don’t remember his name, it was like Derek or something.”

Chris sees red and he has to take a moment to ground himself before he speaks up in a low, clipped voice. “You got into the car of a stranger who you’ve never met before?” He’s going to see just how much wolfsbane it takes to kill a werewolf. This is a threat, it’s absolutely a threat, there’s no way in hell a werewolf would take a hunter’s daughter home if it wasn’t meant to be a threat.

He’s trailing them and Chris should have unloaded his clip into him when he interrogated the son of a bitch. He’s working with the fucking alpha and found the perfect excuse to get at his daughter. 

“Dad, it’s fine, I wanted to get out of the party. I think someone had spiked the punch or something because I think Scott had gotten roofied — and Jackson seemed weird too, same with a few others — so like it’s not like staying there was any safer.”

Chris clenches his nails into his palms to calm himself down. The new beta is one of those two boys, he’s never been more certain of it. Derek said he was Scott’s friend which makes him think the McCall boy is the werewolf, but Derek could have just known that’s who Allison was with. 

God he’s going to rip Derek’s head off.

But first, “You’re grounded,” Chris says quietly. “You should have called me or your mother and one of us would have picked you up.”

“ _ Dad _ —“ Allison tries to protest. 

“Allison, I don’t want to hear it,” Chris cuts her off. “You could have been killed tonight, there’s a murderer out there who killed a young woman not that much older than you, and you got into the car with a stranger.” Chris wants to shake in rage, Derek Hale is working with the same alpha who murdered his sister. “So give me your phone and go to your room.”

Allison looks like she wants to fight and argue, but instead she just gives Chris her best death glare as she hands him her phone. “This isn’t fair,” he hears her spit under her breath as she goes up the stairs. 

Fair or not, Chris is going to keep his family safe.

——

Peter watches. That’s what he does now, sits back, waits, and watches. He’s always been a patient man, good at hiding in the shadows and waiting for his time to strike. It’s why he had been a good left hand for Talia and an excellent fixer. 

He watches as his beta abandons his date at the party, he watches as his nephew takes her home. He watches as Chris Argent shoots his beta through the arm and he watches as Derek frees Scott.

He watches in interest as Chris panics when his daughter tells him how she got a ride home from a man who she thinks is named Derek. That is an unexpected benefit, he knows how seriously Chris takes his family and now a werewolf has directly approached them. He lets out a quiet, barked laugh as he thinks about how Chris has now probably twisted it in his mind that Derek is threatening his family rather than threatening Scott.

Peter couldn’t have planned this better himself and that makes him almost giddy. It’s like the universe knows his revenge is just and is handing him all the pieces he needs, even before he knows he needs them.

So he’ll continue to sit in the shadows and watch until he finally finds the right time to strike. He’s finally found almost everyone involved in the fire and he’ll go after them, saving Chris for last. He will make Scott see his strength and how the murders are necessary, Scott will learn that he’s been blessed by being chosen by Peter.

Peter retreats into the darkness and returns to the hospital, taste of Chris’s panic and rage sweet on his tongue. It’s enough to tide him over with the overwhelming smells of sanitizer and sickness.

——

Chris agrees to let Allison go to the lacrosse game under the condition that he comes with her. Both of the suspected betas are on the lacrosse team and so is the Stilinski kid, it’s a good opportunity to scout them out. Even if neither of the teens seem that suspicious, he could always shake down Stiles some more.

He ends up having to pick up Allison’s friend Lydia on the way to the game. The two girls sit in the back of the SUV and chatter in the way teenagers do when they’re in the car with their parents. It’s like all teens think that there’s a soundproof wall between the driver’s seat and their seats. Usually, Chris tries to just ignore their conversations, only keeping an ear out for anything that seems illegal or harmful, but both girls are connected to Scott and Jackson, so he listens more closely than usual.

It’s a lot of nothing, Lydia talks about how she found out who spiked the punch with everclear at her party, her and Allison talk about doing a double date at some point in the future, and she talks about her relationship problems a lot.

What Chris pays the most attention to is the way Lydia talks about Jackson and Scott. Apparently Jackson had been the hotshot of the lacrosse team the past few years and Scott had been mediocre at best but over the past year, Scott had put in a lot of practice and at practice he’s been leaving Jackson in the dust.

Lydia groans, “He’s just been acting so nuts, like this is all he can focus on. Seriously, Allison, he’s barely even acting like himself anymore.”

“How so?” Allison asks.

“It’s like he’s in love with Scott or something. He’s practically been ignoring me since the party and he’s been spending every waking minute at the gym or practicing lacrosse.”

“So then why don’t you just dump him? It’s not like he’s the hottest guy at school and, no offense, his personality leaves a  _ lot  _ to be desired.”

“Allison, sweetie, I can’t just dump him. Do you know how hard I work on being this perfect? There’s a reason I’m together with him.” Chris has to hold back a laugh at Lydia’s tone. He doesn’t exactly miss his days where high school drama was the most important thing — can’t miss what you never had, after all — but something about teenage relationship drama strikes a nostalgic chord to him. 

“But look, tonight you’re gonna cheer for Jackson with me and we’re going to try to get him out of this funk he’s in. Hopefully if we do that it’ll pull him out of this moodiness.”

“Shouldn’t I be cheering for Scott?” Allison asks. “I mean, he and I are kinda… you know…” she lowers her voice, not low enough for Chris not to hear it in the car, but enough to show that she’s conscious that her dad who doesn’t exactly approve of her relationship is listening.

“You can cheer for him if you want, but seriously, Allison, I just want to cheer up Jackson because not even blo—“

“Okay, Lydia, a forty five year old man who does not want to know about the… intimate parts of your relationship is in the car with you,” Chris cuts her off, finally speaking up. Allison turns bright red but Lydia hardly looks affected. “I get you’re a teenage girl doing teenage girl things, but please, spare me the details.”

“Well then, Mr. Argent, what do you think I should do?”

“I think relationships shouldn’t be tools for high school popularity and if this boy is treating you poorly, you shouldn’t be together with him.” Chris meets Allison’s eyes in the rear view mirror as he speaks, “I’ve taught Allison the basics of healthy relationships and she knows what to do when boys treat her poorly.”

“ _ Dad _ ,” Allison’s annoyed hiss shows that she picked up his hint about not liking her relationship. If she understood exactly why he disapproves of Scott McCall, they wouldn’t be having this disagreement. It’s not that he’s a dumb high school boy — because that’s every high school boy — it’s that Chris can’t go to sleep without having nightmares of finding his own daughter dismembered in the forest.

Lydia makes a dismissive little noise. “Well, thank you for your input but I’m not looking for a relationship that ends with a white picket fence and two point five kids yet. I’m looking for a little fun in high school.”

Chris fights back an eye roll and turns into the parking lot by the lacrosse field. He’ll talk to Allison later to make sure she knows to step in if she sees signs that Lydia’s relationship with her boyfriend is actually hurting her. But for now, he wants to watch the way the boys play tonight to see if either seem obviously like werewolves.

He wishes he could have brought his pistol with him in case something happens, but school zones make even his permits null and void. If worse comes to worse, he’ll have to take a lacrosse stick and beat the beta with it.

He can’t lie and say the thought of a werewolf in a sport like lacrosse doesn’t make him nervous. Even if it’s not as high contact as something like football, the potential for blood being spilled and that sending the beta into a rage is too high for his liking.

“Mr. Argent could you grab spots for us? Allison and I are gonna check in on Jackson before the game,” Lydia asks as she and Allison hop out of the car.

The images of twenty different ways Allison could be murdered by the beta flash behind Chris’s closed eyes. Still he speaks up, “I want you in the benches ten minutes before the game starts.”

“Thanks dad!” Allison says brightly and kisses his cheek. The two girls head towards the school and Chris figures he should run a perimeter before he sits down. Even if his beta’s in the locker room right now, there’s an alpha and Derek Hale out there that he also needs to keep in mind. 

Chris fingers the small sonar emitter he keeps in his pocket in a half-anxious motion. It’s a strange thought, but he wishes he could talk to Peter about this. The man had never been exactly willing to help him out with hunter problems, but he also had never overtly turned him away. Peter was one of the only people whose knowledge of the supernatural world rivaled his own. 

Peter would have answers, about finding the alpha, helping the teenage beta, about everything, but he’s trapped in his own body.

Chris completes his lap around the area and settles down in the bleachers. Nobody in the crowd seems that suspicious and he hadn’t seen anything on the perimeter. He can’t shake the feeling that the alpha is out there watching tonight unfold just as he is, but if he is, he’s well hidden.

Allison and Lydia come back a few minutes before the game starts — not the ten he had asked for, but Chris takes what he can get when it comes to teenagers — with Lydia looking much more pleased than she had twenty minutes earlier. He doesn’t want to ask or know what has her looking like the cat that caught the canary. Allison, on the other hand, looks a lot less pleased.

“You alright, Allison?” Chris asks.

“It’s fine, I just didn’t see Scott or Stiles.”

_ Interesting _ , Chris thinks to himself. “Both of their parents are here, I’m sure they’ll make it,” is what he says aloud. He noticed Melissa McCall and the Sheriff the moment he sat down in the bleachers. “They must have gotten held up in traffic.”

McCall and Stilinski show up just before the game starts and Lydia heads down to speak with Scott. Chris watches with interest, Stiles seems nervous in a way that doesn’t just seem to be the type of nervousness that comes from a teenage boy talking to a pretty girl. Scott seems out of it as well but in a different way.

“See, told you,” Chris says. His eyes flicker to Jackson who seems much more present than McCall. If he was asked to name the werewolf here and now, his answer would be a resounding Scott McCall. He’s sitting behind the Sheriff and he’s genuinely worried he’ll have to take his gun during the game.

Chris doesn’t want to see a bloodbath at a lacrosse game.

“What did you say to him?” Allison hisses to Lydia as she gets back.

Lydia raises a brow, “I reminded him what’s important here.”

Before Allison can reply, the game starts and both girls turn their rapt attention towards it. Chris also focuses in, but in a different way. He needs to keep an eye on both Jackson and Scott. Even if he’s almost certain the beta is Scott, there’s a chance he could just be another teenager with a hangover and Jackson’s the beta. The aggression issues are a telltale sign of new betas and if he was angry with Scott upstaging him at practice, it’s a good way for an alpha to connive a teenager into accepting the bite.

“Aren’t they supposed to pass the ball to their teammates?” Chris leans down to the Sheriff and asks him fifteen minutes into the game. The first quarter is over and Scott hasn’t had the ball once, he seems almost hesitant. “My daughter told me Scott was outperforming the rest of the team in practice.”

“It’s the first time Scott’s not next to Stiles on the bench,” Stilinski replies with a shrug. “Could be they don’t trust him not to crack under the pressure or, more likely, Jackson doesn’t want to be shown up.”

Chris hums as he watches Jackson score. He’s talented and has good reflexes but nothing about him screams supernatural. “Still, seems weird.”

“Can’t say I miss high school politics.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Chris replies with a chuckle. His gaze narrows slightly as he sees Scott look over to them. Lydia and Allison are holding up a sign for Jackson and he sees the absolutely crushed look in the boy’s eyes. It’s too far to see if they flash golden but Chris swears they’re glinting in a way that’s more than human.

By the time there’s only just over a minute left in the game, Chris watches as something changes in Scott. His entire body tenses as he watches the kid pause, hunched over.

“Which one is Scott again?” He asks Allison, wanting to make sure that he’s watching the right lacrosse player.

“Number eleven.”

Chris grunts out an affirmation and scans his eyes across the crowd. All of these people are at risk if that boy loses control.

The ball’s at play and it doesn’t matter any longer that nobody is passing to Scott. Chris watches as the boy weaves around players as he bolts to intercept the ball from the other team. He’s untouchable as he runs across the field, at one point leaping over another kid to score, tying up the game.

Allison goes wild at this and Chris forces himself to clap and smile at Allison as she nudges his shoulder. He feels sick to his stomach as he watches the half-feral wolf stalk back to his position on the field. He can’t let Allison see this boy, it’s too unsafe.

He looks down towards the bench at Stiles and sees anxiety plastered clear across his face. Seems like Chris isn’t the only one worried about Scott losing control, that’s interesting. Chris will need to set up a night at the Sheriff’s one day soon so he can talk with Stiles, get him to understand why he needs to hand Scott over to him. It’s obvious that the kid sees the danger present in his friend more clearly than most others would.

The whistle is blown and Chris watches the field once again as players start jostling for the ball. The other school has it but Scott’s face to face with the boy holding the ball. Rather than face the beast, he just passes it to Scott.

Chris bites his lip so hard that it nearly bleeds as Scott shoulders another player away from him and bolts across the field. The seconds are ticking down as he throws the ball towards the goal. It looks like the goalie has caught it, but the force of the throw tears open the goalie’s net.

Then, the game’s over. Chris stands up in the bleachers and is preparing himself for a fight that never comes. Scott all but bolts from the field as soon as the final whistle blows and Stiles runs after him. Allison’s cheering her head off while Lydia looks dejected and Chris forces himself to cheer alongside his daughter.

“Go talk to the boys,” Chris tells the girls. “I need to go check in on something. I’ll meet you at the car in ten.”

Lydia and Allison scamper off and Chris slowly walks towards the school. He doesn’t like the idea of a human teenager being alone with an out of control beta. He hears the shattering of glass and his walk turns into a full on sprint. He prepares himself to see the bloodied body of Stiles Stilinski in the locker room with the beta that used to be Scott McCall standing over him, eyes blue and feral.

What he sees is Scott with his claws dug into the porcelain sink trying to fight back his transformation. The mirror over him is shattered into hundreds of pieces. Stiles is trying to calm him down but it doesn’t seem to be working. Scott’s breathing is ragged and his words are twisted by fangs.

Chris watches from the door to the locker room as Scott collapses to the floor, shaking. The rabid anger is gone, replaced by a boy, terrified over what’s happening to him. The fangs and claws melt away into blunt teeth and nails and Chris turns and walks away. The danger of the night has passed and that’s enough for him.

He doesn’t know when or why he decides this, but Chris keeps the information about Scott to himself. The danger he poses is real and serious, but some part of Chris wants to wait and watch before he takes action. He trusts Victoria with his life but he doesn’t know what she would do here but he has the feeling that she’ll tell his sister. Kate is too fast to act, she’s an excellent hunter but she acts first and thinks later more frequently than he likes.

She’ll be in town soon, her initial timeline fell through but she said she’ll let him know before she hits the road. He needs to find a way to apprehend this beta before she’s in town. He doesn’t have much of a plan, but it’s a start. When he has Scott McCall under his control then the rest of the puzzle will come together. He’ll get the alpha and make him pay for what he did to Laura Hale.

——

Two nights later, the body of a former arson investigator is found barely clinging to life in a school bus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> current mood: making up my own timeline of how many days/weeks apart the events of season 1 occurred because I honestly have no clue LOL

**Author's Note:**

> follow me online @smalls2233


End file.
